Global impact of tribology

• 20% of world total energy consumption goes to overcome friciton
• 18-40% of that can be saved by applying new technology, and that would correspond to 8.7% of global energy use and 1.4% of the global GNB
• the biggest potential savings are in transportation and energy industry
• 30% of the fuel consumption in an average passenger car goes to overcome fricition
• 40% of the energy used in mineral mining is used for overcoming friction; friction and wear results in 970 million tonnes CO2 emissions in mineral mining annually corresponding to 2.7% of total world CO2 emissions
• CO2 emissions are 4.5 times higher for an ICE passenger car compared to a similar battery electric car when electricity comes from renewable energy
• Moving from fossil to renewable energy sources would cut down the energy losses due to friciton in energy production by more than 60%

References